BP Get it in Perspective

Cameron has jumped on the Obama band wagon and critises BP over the oil leak off the US coast. That’s easy to do and yet another Prime Minister sucks up to the US instead of sticking up for Britain.

Let’s put it in some sort of perspective. Yes, it is a monumental environmental disaster, that is undeniable. Did BP want it to happen, of course they didn’t. Did they act promptly with more than one measure to cap off the leak? Certainly, it was amazing how quickly they manufactured the ‘cone’ and now this other device to trap a good part of the oil. At the same time they are drilling two new bores to take away the pressure to enable the fractured pipe to be sealed off and all at several miles below sea level. They are funding and organising a massive installation of booms to prevent as much as possible of the oil from washing ashore and that which gets through is being collected. Given the speed of events and the unique situation they should be applauded.

I’m certainly no supporter of greedy multi nationals but credit must surely be given when it’s due. As long as the world cries out for more oil when supplies are diminishing then oil extraction will become more risky and dangerous. We must reduce our dependency or live with consequences.

Robots?

I’m just wondering if large numbers of Britons have become like robots, programmed to do whatever we expected to do regardless of anything else.

Two days ago at least the Met Office was warning of atrocious conditions heading for the north of England and Scotland with gale force winds, heavy snow and freezing temperatures. Despite these warnings, today a coach carrying school children on a trip to Alton Towers set off in the early hours into the teeth of this meteorological onslaught and sadly crashed leaving the road and ending up on it’s side in a brook. Several children injured, some seriously. In Leith near Edinburgh huge waves broke through the defences and crashed over a sea wall and onto the road. A video taken shows traffic still trying to go past even when a van trying to reverse back is almost swept onto it’s side. What has happened to the mindset that will risk a life just to make a delivery or get to work?

A secondary thought is that I can understand and applaud a school trip to a museum, an ancient house or to a beach to study rock pools and so on but a trip to Alton Towers!

Now Very Disturbing BBC

I recently wrote about the BBC not reporting the 24hr blockade of Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Research Establishment and today they are not reporting on a blockade of Sizewell nuclear power station in protest at the government’s flawed report approving more nuclear power stations.

This is very disturbing indeed as the BBC is (was?) one of the very few sources of infomation that could be trusted. I and I suspect others, will be demanding an explanation from the BBC and I’ll post any response when received.

If you have any doubts about nuclear power then I urge you to watch this documentary The Battle for Chenobyl. If you think it couldn’t happen here then just remember the radiation leak from Windscale, now called Sellafield, that wafted over Liverpool and Manchester without a warning to the population, or Three Mile Island in the USA.

Update:  I made an official complaint to the BBC and below is their bland response, make of it what you will.

I understand that you were disappointed that we did not cover the anti-nuclear protests at Sizewell and Aldermaston on our news.

The choice and placement of news items is always a very tricky decision for news editors as with such a wide and varied audience it is difficult to select items that will be of interest to all listeners. We appreciate that viewers want as many items as possible, but there are occasions where a particular story may require a greater share of the running time.

I can assure you that there is no collusion, Sizewell experiences regular anti-nuclear power protests, as do most of the nuclear power stations across Britain. However, there was coverage of the blockade at Aldermaston:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/8515693.stm

I do appreciate your feelings and I can assure you that your comments have been fully registered on our audience log. As you are aware, this is the internal report of audience feedback which we compile daily for all programme executives within the BBC.

It’s very helpful to us to hear the opinions of our audience, whether positive or negative and I’m glad you’ve been in touch with your opinion.

Here We Go Again!

The housing market is on the move again of that there is little doubt and of course along with it the cost of buying a home is rising albeit slowly at the present time. The highest level of unemployment in my region stands at 6% which of course is not much fun for those without work but it does mean that 94% have jobs. Car production is rising once more and bankers bonus payouts are still obscene.

All this does not mean that the recession is over but points to it at least bottoming out. The massive bill to stave off the worst of the global economy crash will still have to be paid over the next couple of decades and will have some negative impact on most of us. Most of us being the ones who played no part in the disgraceful financial gambling of the past ten to twenty years although most of us were a part of the rampant consumerism that gripped the developed world.

A few minor inconveniences have been put in place to curb some of the excesses of the financial traders but by and large as the recovery gets under way it will be business as usual and so setting us up for a repeat performance in another decade or so down the line. Bankers will be making fortunes out of the future labour of ordinary people not even born yet, houses will be purchased as investments and not as homes to live in, industry will again expand and add to the climatic pollution that is already out of control.

This global catastrophe presented the World and I suggest, the UK in particular, with a golden opportunity for change. That chance has already been squandered and we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past and the next time may not contain within it opportunity for change.

What a great example to us all!

Off he goes again this time with Camilla to Italy, speaking on climate change and about the “slow food” movement of local sourcing and organic production. Charlie, who knows far more more than scientists and climatologists, informed the Italian parliament that the world has ‘just 99 months’ to halt global warming or it will be too late.

Ack. The Sun

He is a fine example to us all, we should all do what we can to reduce emissions and buy local food where possible.

Except that he hired a private jet to get there rather than at least take a scheduled flight, or travel by rail. The private jet was presumably at our expence.

Freedom of Information Act

Information regarding the emission of radioactive cooling water from nuclear powered submarines at Faslane in Scotland has just been released.

From this three points spring immediately to mind.

1. If someone or some organisation hadn’t requested the information under the FIA would these leaks have been brought to the public’s notice? I very much doubt it particularly as the first acknowledged leak was in 2004.

2. Rumour has it that the MoD is about to issue a contract for the dismantling of nuclear submarines along with the reactors in Plymouth, against the expressed wishes of the population. Assurances as to safety have of course been made but if radiation can’t be controlled in ‘normal’ servicing what hope is there in breaking down a reactor safely, right in the middle of a large city like Plymouth?

3. The Government seems hell bent on building more nuclear powered electricity power stations, adding more risk to the citizens and if even the comparatively small units on submarines cannot be guarranteed safe eventually there is likely to be a catastrophy. We’ve already had the Windscale disaster which blew radiation over northern England including Manchester. News of which incidentally didn’t creep out until years later.

The Freedom of Information Act could be a two edged sword in that governments may not release information unless specifically asked for it and of course if we don’t suspect something we are not going ask.

The Caring Prince

We all know how caring is Prince Charles or at least so we are regularly told by his PR Team. He cares about the environment and about sustainable living and he is passionate about alternative  health care isn’t he? He even set up The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health Care.

The ‘charity’   submitted it’s report to the Charity Commission recently and this shows that investments were made to among others :-

• £112,000 in Artemis UK Special Situations, which includes investments in BP, Shell, GlaxoSmithKline and BAE systems
• £92,000 in Investec Global Energy, 26% of which is invested in ‘Oil and Gas Exploration’
• £65,000 in Jupiter Emerging European Opportunities Fund, whose top ten holdings include LUKOIL (Russia’s largest oil company) and Gazprom (the world’s largest gas company)

Need I say more? I don’t think so.

G20 March

Today at the G20 march in London the police estimate 35,000 people braved the cold winds and warnings that there might be ‘trouble’ to make clear what the people want from this meeting. By the way, going from my experience of marching with CND you can probably double that number.

Various groups issued statements and the most impressive for me was the one issued by ‘The British Muslim Initiative’ which I am happy to copy below. It is clear, precise and encompasses all the wishes expressed by the other groups.

“While the world looks with horror at the hundreds of billions of pounds being thrown at shoddy financial establishments to bail them out and to cover for huge executive bonuses, very little mention is made of the hundreds of billions that continue to be pumped into the global war machine that claims thousands of lives every day.

“Unless occupation in all its forms is seen as a repugnant manifestation of human greed and desire to over-power… and unless we see to it that poverty, disease, illiteracy and social injustice are properly and responsibly addressed, we will never be able to resolve the crisis that engulfs the world through the failure of its major financial policies and institutions.”

God Won’t Help Us

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has said that God will not intervene to protect us from global warming and associated disasters even the “ultimate tragedy” of humanity gradually “choked, drowned, or starved by its own stupidity.”

Oh Dear! There was me relying on a divine breath of fresh air to blow away all the carbon dioxide and re-freeze the  arctic and antarctic seas to lower the levels. Better have another think then!

Blogging

I was talking with someone today and mentioned that I did a political (in the broadest sense) blog but that I hadn’t added a post for a couple of weeks. On reflection this was because I had become somewhat despondent about politics in general, the global climate and ever increasing bites being taken from our hard won ‘freedoms’.

Let’s face it there are over 10million blogs out there and in general it is people who are already politically aware who, in the main, will look at any one of them. So what’s the point? Again on reflection, the point is that we must keep on expressing our views, left wing, right wing, or somewhere in the middle as just one of the ways to hone our minds, exchange ideas and philosophies but above all to draw our readers attention to threats on our horizon. True freedom and democracy can so easily be eroded through neglect and there are many who seeking power for themselves, will delight in silence.

If just one person reading just one blog starts to question an assumption then the hours spent writing blogs and contributing to others will have been enormously worthwhile.